Labasa

Sunday, August 02, 2009

Year Two
Date: 3/8/2009 14:30
Weather: Hazy
Location: Lesiaceva Point (16 48.59' S, 179 17.298' E)
Author: Peter.

We left Savusavu this morning and made a short hop around the corner to Lesiaceva Point the eastern most side of Savusavu Bay. We are currently anchored in front of the resort that bears the name of the famous French diver/marine biologist/inventor Jacques (i wont even try to spell his name). This is our start point as we begin to make our way back to the east tomorrow.

On Friday we took a bus ride over to the town of Labasa. The three hour bus trip starts on the south side of Vanua Levu and finishes on the north. Our bus, a rusty relic originally from some Asian country, although a little cramped, did give us an opportunity to see more of inland Fiji. We met our bus at 0930 in the morning and along with a full load of Fijians set out north. We felt bad for the locals who use this service regularly as the windows no longer work -would have been nice to let the wind in when weather is hot, and to close the cool air out when up the top of the mountain but the windows were either stuck open or closed. In addition to the lack of climate control the seats are too small, Kylie and myself only just fit let alone anyone with a big bum, and the seats are too close together. My legs were no where near fitting. This arrangement left plenty of space down the aisle, great back in Asia to pack in a crowd but not so here. From our seat in the front of the bus we got to see a great deal of the country side through the windows, the open door, and the rust holes in the floor.

After rounding the north east corner of Savusavu bay the bus slowly climbs up hill winding its way through some rugged bush up high into the mountains. Every now and then we stop to pick up passengers from the side of the road and the bus slowly starts to become overcrowded. The centre walkway becomes full of produce, kava and personal belongings which makes it hard for anyone wanting to get off to transit this area. The people are however extremely friendly and tolerant as we are greeted with a "bulla" from each new arrival. I would love to explain what the native vegetation looked like but there is not much left and what is still left is covered by some large leafed vine- a weed we presume.

After about 40km we start to descend back down the ridge to the other side where the mountains start to disperse and we begin to enter plantation pine forests before eventually making our way out onto an agricultural plain. We had heard of great crops of sugar cane but these seem to be diminishing. Unlike the big endless fields of sugar cane between Harwood and Ballina back home, we only seemed to pass small pockets of sugar cane some in the process of being cut by hand. As we descended down the last hill towards Labasa it became obvious that the land now looked most suited to some kind of grazing live stock.

We hopped off the bus and received a big shock to the senses. The smells (good and bad), the sight of so many people, and the heat. We had hopped on the bus in the quiet little town of Savusavu and had hopped off in a completely different world. Labasa has a major Indo-Fijian population and because of its influence the whole town takes on the feel of a "Little India". It is crowded, smells of spices and curry, and is full of shops selling the most wonderfully colourful sparkling saris that adorn the many ladies about town. Their clothes are bright, covered with embroidery, sequins and jewels. We had three hours to waste so we went exploring each corner of town before sitting down to lunch. We choose a crowded cafe which proved to be excellent. We ordered two dishes but they were so large one would have been enough. Each dish cost $5 Fijian which equates approx to $3.50 aus.

restaurant we lunched in

After lunch we went back to a few of the shops to get Kylie a sun dress. We thought if we bought one of their clothing sets the top would be great around the boat. The bonus being it came with a stunning scarf and a pair of pants. After many costume changes we decided on a purple top. The girls at the counter also found it funny that a male was helping a female to choose her clothes. We then headed off to a tailor to get some small alterations to the fit which only cost $5. We thought this fantastically cheap but it is only when you read a job advert in one of the windows that you realise why. The advert read "seamstress wanted $1.78 per hour". Our mouths just hung open. Is this normal? Our lunch without tax would have cost almost six hours worth of work.

Our time had come to an end and we had to make our way to the bus terminus. It is hard to describe the chaos present here. Buses, people, dust, fumes, noise, smell, all crowded into a small space. Horns honked, people came from everywhere as work must have finished to join the already overcrowded area of school kids still waiting to go home. We sat on our bus next to an open window to help with some of the heat we were feeling in the bus. Some entrepreneurs walked up and down the bus windows selling peanuts and other snacks for the long ride home. Sitting next to the open window although good in the bus bay was not so good as we made our way back up into the cloud line. When the rest of the bus that had working windows shut them to keep the cold out we could not and froze. We put on everything we had but it still was not enough. Some locals even tried to help us shut the window as they were feeling its effects as well but to no avail. The bus was chockas from start to finish so there was now where for us to move to. At the stop halfway along we picked up so many more people we had people standing in the aisle for a long long time. This plus the boxes and personal belongings all stacked on the floor made for some rather exciting times as people once again tried to hop off.

We arrived home well after dark, and being rather tired and stiff from our long trip promptly hopped into bed and fell asleep.

Labassa bus terminal